Musical gallery of evocative images on display in latest DSO program

Fri Jan 24, 2025 at 3:34 pm
By William McGinney
Oboist Erin Hannigan performed Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under conductor Giedrė Šlekytė Thursday night. Photo: DSO/Sylvia Elzafon

Thursday’s performance by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra featured music evoking vivid imagery and narratives under Giedrė Šlekytė, principal guest conductor of the Bruckner Symphony Linz. DSO principal oboist Erin Hannigan took the solo part in Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto, alongside Heliosis, a new piece by Austrian composer Hannah Eisendle. The program concluded with one of the most memorable examples of program music, the Symphonie fantastique by the quintessential Romantic composer, Hector Berlioz.

Eisendle described Heliosis as depicting the oppressive phenomenon of heat stifling one’s very existence.  The cacophonous opening of the piece, which segued into muted and dissonant sound masses of string harmonics and flutter-tongued brass, might suggest sweltering heat to many listeners. But the gestures in the second half of Heliosis were strongly reminiscent of similar passages by Bartók and Stravinsky, to a degree that they distracted from Eisendle’s original program. Despite the chaotic nature of Heliosis, Šlekytė was clearly in control of the performance, her cues prompting each of the unpredictable events and textures that contributed to the texture.

The decorum and delicacy of Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto provided a marked contrast to the brutalist sounds of Heliosis, having a formal structure and an orchestral texture that seemed inspired by Mozart.  Oboe soloist Hannigan began the first movement over a motif played by the cellos, sounding a delicate, sprightly, and long-breathed tune with brief interjections from violins and winds. 

Concertos typically cast soloist and orchestra as either partners in a dialogue or antagonists in a struggle, but Strauss placed the soloist at the center of activity, as she introduced almost all of the themes answered or echoed by the orchestra. Hannigan’s stage presence seemed to embody this; she appeared focused inwardly while performing, so that Šlekytė often seemed to be looking to her for directions that she then conveyed to the rest of the ensemble.

Cellos introduced the Andante movement by carrying over a motif from the first movement, prompting a plaintive song from Hannigan’s oboe that became the main theme of this movement. A brief cadenza led into the bustling third movement, marked by a busier melody from Hannigan that was echoed by the orchestra. A second cadenza featured dazzling solo passagework that nonetheless preserved the concerto’s decorum and restraint. The movement resumed with a contrasting Allegro built on lilting, dance-like rhythms, ultimately ending with a unison statement of this theme by the entire group.

Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, which comprised the second half of the program, was noteworthy for its unusual structure, colorful orchestration, and pointed gestures. Striking and even grotesque sounds realized the composer’s underlying story of an obsessive artist. Šlekytė urged the musicians toward a wide range of dynamics and a deliberate yet flexible tempo in the first movement, all of which captured the frenetic, unstable – and romantic – character of Berlioz’s lovesick protagonist. The declamatory melody for the beloved, although beginning softly and sweetly in its first appearance, quickly reached a fevered pitch that suggested the depths of feeling instilled in the artist by thoughts of his beloved.

Šlekytė reined in some of this passion for the second movement (“A Ball,” depicting the beloved out among the social set) by maintaining a stricter tempo to preserve the waltz character, while using dynamic extremes to indicate the artist’s simmering passions. Delicate passages from the winds and harps reinforced the elegant setting of this episode.

The third movement featured a still greater variety of colors and gestures to evoke the artist’s sojourn in the country as he broods over his beloved. English horn and oboe (from Hannigan offstage) mimicked Alphorns, timpani rolls evoked portending thunder, and anguished strings underscored the beloved’s melody as the artist agonized over her. As in the first movement, Šlekytė’s measured tempo and wide-ranging dynamics coaxed the sounds of the artist’s agitation from the orchestra.

The artist’s vision of his execution for murdering his beloved is the subject of the fourth movement, which Šlekytė took at a brisk pace. Thunderous drums and bellicose brass propelled the march forward at almost earsplitting loudness until they suddenly ceased, revealing a wistful statement of the beloved’s theme by Gregory Raden on clarinet. This was just as quickly supplanted by a crash from the orchestra (the guillotine blade), followed by a triumphant fanfare that Šlekytė abruptly and unexpectedly silenced (prompting a faint but still audible “Wow!” from somewhere in the audience).

The last movement, depicting a gathering of witches following the funeral of the artist, saw Šlekytė marshalling the resources of the DSO to maximize the grotesquerie of the artist’s visions. The eerie laughter of the strings in the opening, followed by the jaunty rendition of the beloved revealed as a witch, led to the solemn parody of the Dies Irae melody and the wild abandon of the witches’ round dance.

This Finale brought the evening full circle. No doubt the bizarre and even shocking subject matter of the Symphonie fantastique startled Berlioz’s original audience in a manner comparable to the response of today’s audiences to works and subjects similar to Heliosis.

The program will be repeated 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 3 p.m. Sunday. dallassymphony.org


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